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Thursday, October 31, 2013

Internet Learning

This is an area of technology that is hotly debated: Internet Learning. Not just internet learning, but learning with technology as well. As school systems experiment with what to implement and what not to implement, the educational authorizes, parents, and other groups are fighting a war. The question, is it good or harmful to allow technology into the classroom? Here I'll give some of my extremely biased opinion. I'll lay straight up right now that I use the internet to tech myself 4 different courses in and out of school, and I love it. Here's why I do:

1. It gives you freedom

When I am doing learning over the internet, I get to go at whatever pace I want, typically faster than I would go in a classroom. I love this aspect because the majority of my school day is fluff that I don't really gain anything from. No more reviewing what I already know, I can just skip it is I don't need it. I can also study a wider array of topics. For example, I take online courses on investing, 3 web-design languages, and 1 programming language. None of these courses are offered at my school. Now I see where the argument can be introduced in this topic. Many people think that if they give unmotivated students this much freedom that they will abuse it. My response to this is that these types of students will not apply themselves whether they are looking at a computer screen of listening to a teacher. If they aren't motivated, it doesn't matter what they are learning from.

2. It is native to students

This is a part of the issue that has been at the forefront of the argument for a long time. In my opinion students can learn better using things that attentive to them: technology. If you compare the amount of time it takes to look a word up in the dictionary compared to the time it takes you to look it up on a phone, the phone will win every single time. If you look at how fast a person can write a paper by hand compared to on a computer, the computer will write it faster every time. The fact is, although many think that we spend too much time on useless stuff on technology, that is because we've accomplished everything we need to do faster than with traditional methods. At least in most occasions, I get distracted sometimes just because. But only sometimes of course!

3. Its already happening

The bitter truth is that technology will become integrated into the classroom regardless of anyone who tries to stop it. In an increasingly internet-based age people will need the internet to engage in efficient and beneficial teaching. There will be fights, but one way or another there will be a lot more technology in classrooms over the next 5 years.